Common Humanity

07/23/2026

A reminder of our special seminar on peacemaking with Iran Friday evening July 24 at 6 - 8:30 pm Eastern time. Details below and press release with more details at CommonHumanity.org. This will be live-streamed on ManhattanMennonite.org and we will be posting video of the conference on our website CommonHumanity.org early next week.

Please spread the word and tell your friends! There is an alternative of sanity and peace instead of the terrible war we seem to be slipping into!

07/08/2026

Peacemaking With Iran Seminar to be Held July 24 in New York

“Peacemaking with Iran, A Seminar” will be held on Friday, July 24, in New York City. Featured speakers include peace activist Anthony Donovan, Ed Martin who has traveled to Iran a remarkable 34 times on humanitarian peacemaking missions, and Leila Zand who is an Iranian academic who has been working to build peace between her native Iran and the United States.

Ms. Leila Zand, Ph.D. has worked extensively with international communities and in academia and higher education to promote peace and justice in the United States and abroad. Her working experience has been to advance peace and promote dialogue to achieve nonviolent conflict resolution in international disputes, as well as educating future generations within academia and higher education settings to provide a holistic understanding of the Middle East and its politics, particularly her native Iran. Her research builds on over a decade of research and practice focusing on Track II Diplomacy within the international contexts

Another speaker, Ed Martin, said,“I’ve had the privilege of seeing firsthand the beautiful culture of Iran and developing long-lasting friendships with Iranians,” Mr. Martin said. “I’m eager to share with my fellow Americans the extensive experiences I have had with the Iranian people. I do believe peace with Iran is possible.”

Mr. Martin’s engagements with Iran have included serving as Mennonite Central Committee’s representative to Iran for 16 year, collaborating with the Iranian Red Crescent Society on disaster and refugee relief, establishing a student exchange program between Iran and North America, assisting in organizing a series of interfaith dialogue conferences, helping to arrange meetings of American religious leaders with several presidents of Iran, and arranging the recruitment and hosting of a Muslim scholar from Iran at Eastern Mennonite University’s Center for Interfaith Engagement, of which Mr. Martin was director for six years.

Also speaking at the conference is Mr. Anthony Donovan who first interviewed diplomats of the Iranian UN Mission in 1983 for his book World Peace? He again interviewed Iran's UN Ambassador in 2004 for the documentary Dialogues. Mr. Donovan traveled with Ed Martin to Iran for 3 weeks in 2022, and he met with Iran's President Pezeshkian in 2024. His most recent planned visit had to be canceled because of the US/Israel attack.


The conference will be held from 6 to 8:30 pm on Friday, July 24, at the historic Friends Meetinghouse at 15 Rutherford Place between 2nd and 3rd Avenues and 15th and 16th streets in Manhattan. There is no charge for admission; a free-will offering will be taken.

A table will be provided for organizations working for peace with Iran who have materials they wish to distribute.

The seminar is co-sponsored by the non-profit humanitarian organization Common Humanity (CommonHumanity.org) and Manhattan Mennonite Fellowship (ManhattanMennonite.org)

Press Contact: Mel Lehman, [email protected]

07/08/2026

06/23/2026

By now in your life you've heard thousands of hours of talk about Iran in the news media from U.S. government officials -- most of whom haven't even been to Iran and all of whom are narrow-minded.

Here's a link to a remarkably insightful interview about Iran with peacemaker Doug Hostetter on our Common Humanity webpage: CommonHumanity.org. Please take some time to listen to this eloquent and heartfelt call for peace with Iran.

06/20/2026

Reminder: TODAY June 20 at 1 pm

Peacemaking with Iran: A Discussion with Peacemaker Doug Hostetter

As the conflict between the U.S. and Israel and Iran enters its fourth month, the need to end this conflict becomes ever more urgent.

Join us for a Zoom discussion on Saturday, June 20, at 1 pm Eastern time with peacemaker Doug Hostetter who believes peace with Iran is possible. He bases his belief on the extensive conversations he has had with Iranian religious and government officials, the ten webinars he has organized with Iranian universities, and a two-week friendship learning visit he made to Iran.

His career has included 10 years as Mennonite Central Committee Representative at the United Nations. After retiring, he has worked with LUKE 10, an organization devoted to building peace with Iran.

Registration is required: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_LlKFAAQ1TDCcDytP_xcZQg

03/16/2026

Can We Talk?

An Open Letter To My Conservative Christian Sisters and Brothers

It is commonly agreed that conservative Christian support has been one of the key reasons for President Trump's rise to power and remaining in power.

Can we talk? Literally. I'd like to meet with conservative Christians in your church and discuss this with you. I think your support for Donald Trump and all of the evil and madness that he is perpetuating on the world needs to end.

What will finally end his reign of selfishness and profound foolishness? A rise in the price of gasoline? I'd like to think that my conservative Christian friends could do more than that and think afresh about these issues and change their minds.

I am willing to travel within a reasonable distance to your church and participate in a public meeting of dialogue. I am based in New York City and I also spend time in Kansas. My focus would be the Middle East where I've worked and traveled regularly for the past 30 years. I'm a Mennonite Deacon and we Mennonites have often served as a bridge between the historic mainline Protestant denominations and the conservative Evangelicals and fundamentalists. I promise to be respectful and kind and gentle in my conversation with you. But I also promise to be fully honest: I think that the unquestioning conservative Christian support for Donald Trump is hurting the global Christian Church, hurting America, and hurting the world.

Can we talk? You can reach me at [email protected]. To see some of the sermons I've preached at my home Manhattan Mennonite Fellowship and Chelsea Community Church in New York City, visit Notes on the Journey: A Spiritual Journal at https://mellehman89.wixsite.com/mysite-2. For a look at the decades of Middle East peacemaking work I've done, visit CommonHumanity.org. And for a look at the tour I give at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City about Biblical artifacts in the museum, visit TheBibleAtTheMet.org.

Here's a photo of me visiting the Umayyad mosque in Damascus several years ago. I'm standing in front of a shrine which is said to contain the head of John the Baptist. Local Muslims in Damascus believe that when Jesus returns to earth, He will return to one of the mosque's minarets which is called the Jesus Minaret. And the other photo is me with Iraqi refugee artists, some of whom I've been very honored to work with for 20 years. The photo was taken at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees office in Damascus about 20 years ago.

Can we talk?

03/09/2026

Here in the heartland, near the end of the storied Chisholm Trail in Wichita, I found outspoken opposition to the invasion of Iran. On Saturday, March 7, Susan and I attended a weekly protest against the many anti-democratic things that are hurting our country. We found an atmosphere of strong, healthy opposition to this crazy, evil, totally wrong-minded U.S collusion with Israel in invading the country of Iran which poses no threat to us.

03/04/2026

The Dogs of War

The current monumentally foolish and evil U.S. and Israeli invasion of Iran brings to my mind my visit to Baghdad in July 2003, just three months after the similarly foolish and evil U.S. invasion of Iraq three months earlier. I previously had made six humanitarian visits to Iraq beginning in 1996 in an effort to combat the U.S.-backed economic sanctions that were killing the children of Iraq.

I had always felt safe as a visitor during those earlier trips. But July 2003 felt very different. Sadaam Hussein was gone, but the growing chaos that was soon to overwhelm Iraq was beginning to take his place. In the first heady weeks following the U.S. invasion, the official narrative was that the Iraqi people would welcome U.S. soldiers as liberators and there would dawn a glorious new era of peace and democracy.

My stay in Baghdad soon convinced me otherwise. My purpose had been to bring the doctors of Iraq some medical textbooks that the sanctions had previously prevented from reaching them. And I was trying to make preparations to lead another team of doctors to Iraq as I had done in December 2002.

But I soon realized that such a tour was now out of the question. I found widespread fear and a sense of the impending anarchy that would take over the country. I remember seeing a fight break out on the street outside my tourist hotel on the Tigris River. Then soon after I returned home the bombings began. To this day I’ve kept the pen that a staff member gave me during my visit to the United Nations offices in the Canal Hotel, one of many locations that were bombed soon after I was there.

What short memories and limited imaginations we Americans have! Henry Ford said that history is bunk. He was very wrong. We need to learn from history instead of blindly following the fickle whims of the present moment.

Among the many things we’ve forgotten is that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency had a key roll in creating the current mess in Iraq. In 1953 the CIA helped to overthrow the legitimate government of Iranian Prime Minister Mosaddegh for reasons of money — to protect British oil interests. He was replaced by the hated Shah who was in turn eventually replaced by the extremist religious clerics who have ruled Iran since then to the present. U.S.-instigated regime change was a terribly bad idea in Iran in 1953 and it was a terrible idea in Iraq in 2003 and it is a terrible idea now.

Shakespeare recognized that truth 400 years ago in a play about regime change called “Julius Caesar.” The assassination of Caesar in ancient Rome “let slip the dogs of war” and resulted in more violence. I fear that in Iran we’ve let slip the dogs of war and it will be very hard to put them back in their cages again.

What to do? We must stop obeying Israel about U.S. foreign policy and stop worshiping money and oil and start listening and thinking with our heads and feeling with our hearts.

One of the most important reasons behind Trump’s rise to dictatorial power is that he has been supported enthusiastically by conservative Evangelical and fundamentalist Christians. One very practical thing thinking and grounded Christians could do it to pick up the phone, call one of the Evangelical or fundamentalist churches in their community, and ask if they could come by for a discussion. If that discussion takes place in a spirit of compassion and humility, without arrogance or pride, I truly believe it could change some hearts and make a difference.�

Mel Lehman
March 4, 2026

Before invading Iraq in 2003, the U.S. imposed severe economic sanctions on the country which claimed the lives of up to 500.000 children. Here are some of the photos of sick children I took during my visits there to work against the sanctions.

01/17/2026

On Sunday, January 11, '26, I preached a sermon at Community Church of Chelsea here in Manhattan about seeing the Middle East through the eyes of Palestinian Christians in Bethlehem. 16 1/2 minutes. Please keep all of the people of Bethlehem in your prayers.

Mel Lehman (Mennonite) grew up in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. He received a Master of Arts in theology from Union Theological Seminary and an Master of ...

12/24/2025

Despite Testing, Christian Palestinians' Faith Remains Strong
As I got off the airport train at the Jerusalem station during Advent 2025 and looked around to find my way, an elderly man with a snowy white beard approached me and politely asked where I was headed.
"Bethlehem," I said.
"Oh," he replied, "you better take a shotgun."
I couldn’t quite believe what I had heard. It was surely the worse advice I have ever received in my entire life. But it struck me as a clear indication of the predicament that Israel/Palestine finds itself in today. I found a greater sense of despair among people there than in any of my several trips to the region during the past 15 years. The Israelis remain incapable or unwilling to recognize the humanity and legitimate need of the Palestinian people for justice and freedom. And the Israelis continue to do everything they can to make life miserable for the Palestinians in the hope that they will leave; an eventuality I doubt will happen anytime soon.
I spent a week in Bethlehem during Advent delivering Christmas cards to Palestinian Christians and bringing cards back from them to American Christians in return. During my visit I stayed at the Bethlehem Bible College and attended one of their student-led chapel services. It focused on the birth of Jesus which took place just a few blocks from their school.
Over the course of the week I was there I shared several meals with the students and staff and I had numerous opportunities to chat with them in the course of our card exchange. I found that they were happy to hear from Americans and to send greetings in return. And I found that clearly the students were full of Christian faith and radiated a joyful Christmas spirit.
I found the same robust faith among the students and staff of the Dar Al-Kalima Lutheran School and Hope School for disadvantaged children which was founded by Mennonite Central Committee in 1962.
Overall I had a very clear sense of a rock solid unshakable faith among the Palestinian Christian community there. But yet, I sensed an occasional note of frustration and anxiety in individual conversations. This is a time of testing for the Palestinian Christian community there. That was perhaps most pointedly expressed by an elderly Christian lady in her 90's who had spent her long years involved with the life and work of the church. She admitted that the despair brought about by 77 years of Israeli occupation and persecution was so great among her fellow Christians that a few of them had lost their faith. Why would a just God allow this cruel persecution by the Israelis to happen to them and even get worse? Why were Israeli "hilltop youth" cutting down centuries-old olive trees and stealing Palestinian land with impunity? Why were Palestinian children sometimes grabbed during the middle of the night by Israeli soldiers and and beaten bloody under false charges and taken to prison? Why didn't God do something? This lady remained strong in her faith, she assured me, but she did concede that there were times when it seemed to her that "God had forgotten to put in His hearing aids."
One Palestinian Christian mentioned the lawlessness on the West Bank by radical settlers who continued to attack Palestinians and steal their land. We see one or two Palestinians shot each day, he said, and it's almost beginning to seem like the new normal. Concern was also raised about the continued emigration of Palestinian Christians from their homeland.
A particularly stinging occurrence took place just before I arrived. Some 1,000 Christian pastors from the U.S. came to Israel in what can only be described as a propaganda tour organized by the Israeli government. At no point did any of the pastors visit any Palestinian churches. In an eloquent public letter to the pastors, the Rev. Dr. Jack Sara, President of the Bethlehem Bible College and a pastor with the Christian and Missionary Alliance church in the Holy Land, rebuked them for their failure to visit their fellow Christians. "If you are one of the 1,000: Aren't you ashamed!!" he wrote.
The pastors came declaring their solitary with the State of Israel, he wrote, "yet in all of their proclamations, one thing was painfully absent: any acknowledgement of the living, suffering Body of Christ in this land. You blessed a state [of Israel] — but looked away from the people being displaced, bombed, or silenced." This entire one-page letter is well worth reading by American Christians It is available at www.comeandsee.com, the Christian website of Nazareth which also contains other very helpful information about the Palestinian Christian community.
But despite the testing, I had a very clear sense that the Christian faith of Palestinians in the Holy Land remains strong. On the Sunday I was there I attended wonderful service full of the Spirit of love and Christmas joy at the Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem. During the service I had the great honor of receiving communion from the Rev. Dr. Mitri Rahab, the world-renowned Christian theologian. Outside the church is a small sculpture and a quote from Dr. Rahab: "God has put us at the right place, Bethlehem; at the right time, though difficult; with the right vision and people, to proclaim the gospel of liberation and lift up a culture of life and hope."

Mel Lehman
Christmas, 2025